The cultivation of mixed crops has a very positive effect on the garden bed and often also on the harvest yield. Find out here why you should grow mixed plants and which neighbors pole beans get along well with and which ones you shouldn't mix the garden beans with.
Which plants are suitable for mixed runner beans?
In a mixed crop with runner beans, corn, cucumbers, zucchini, lettuce and cabbage make good neighbors. However, avoid combinations with fennel, peas, onions and French beans to ensure optimal growth and harvest success.
The advantages of mixed culture
Mixed crops are used in private gardens as well as in organic gardening, permaculture and other agricultural methods that do not use chemical pesticides and fertilizers. When planted correctly, mixed beds are significantly less affected by pests and diseases. Here are the advantages at a glance:
- Diseases and pests are kept away
- Taller plants provide low-growing shade and protection from wind
- Neighboring plants provide others with nutrients
- Ground covers retain moisture in the soil and thus protect taller growing plants from drying out
- The beds look more colorful and beautiful
The only disadvantage of mixed crops is the somewhat more difficult harvesting process. Since the different plants are ready to harvest at different times, they must be harvested several times and with great care in order not to damage the other plants.
Common beans in mixed cultivation
Runner beans are ideal for mixed cultivation, as they have several beneficial effects on their plant neighbors:
- They provide shade.
- They enrich the soil with nitrogen through bacteria on their tuberous roots, which is why nitrogen fertilization is not necessary.
- Common beans can cope with nutrient-poor soil and can therefore be combined with both hungry and less hungry plants.
Good neighbors for runner beans
Runner beans, like most plants - and people, don't get along with everyone. They get along with some less well than others and with a few they even form a kind of symbiosis. Heavy feeders such as corn, cucumbers, courgettes and courgettes benefit from the nitrogen that runner beans provide. The climbing beans, in turn, benefit from strong-growing corn on which they can climb. Low-growing vegetables such as lettuces or tubers can be grown well at the base of the beans. Here is a selection of good plant neighbors for pole beans:
- Savory
- Endives
- Cucumbers
- Nasturtium
- cabbage
- Kohlrabi
- Corn:
- Radish
- Radish
- Beetroot
- Salad
- Sage
- Celery
- Spinach
- Zucchini
Bad neighbors for pole beans
However, some vegetables have a negative effect on the growth of runner beans or vice versa. Runner beans should therefore not be grown together with the following plants:
- Bush beans
- Peas
- Fennel
- garlic
- Peppers
- Leek
- Chives
- Onions
Tip
Mixed culture doesn't mean that you have to grow all the plants randomly. Plant a row of runner beans and next to them a row of lettuce or another good planting neighbor. There has to be order.
